Yet across the Atlantic, and particularly in Los Angeles, the mood in a new crop of barbershops is quite different. In place of British formality is a more relaxed approach.

Take the new Baxter Finley Barber & Shop in West Hollywood. It sits just 500ft from the trendsetting fashion boutique Opening Ceremony; its interior walls are lined with bright white subway tiles; porcelain shaving chairs sit on wooden floors; and barbers are clad in gingham shirts rather than the prim waistcoat and tie typical of those in London’s West End. The menu of services is as straightforward as a cut or a shave, with not a mention of anything as intricate as a manicure or a back-wax.

At The Proper Barbershop in LA’s Mid-City the mood is positively hip. Modern and street art features in the salon alongside old-fashioned neon shaving chairs and tubs of retro hair wax. Vinnie Morey and Trent Magnano, the 23-year-old founders and trained barbers, encourage customers to indulge in a hot-towel shave or a real barber’s haircut while “relaxing with an X-Box, watching a funny movie, and having a cold beer in our back lounge.”

Eschewing London’s airs and graces, many of LA’s barbershops aim to deliver a more retrosexual, less metrosexual experience, drawing on their homegrown vintage Hollywood style. With the influence of television shows such as Mad Men, the US drama centred around a stylish advertising agency in 1960s Manhattan, men appear to be increasingly interested in the clean-cut, polished look of lead characters Don Draper and Roger Sterling.

Vinnie Malcolm co-owns The Shave of Beverly Hills. His barbershop’s key location at the base of the Golden Triangle, home to the William Morris talent agency, means that it attracts a lot of powerful men, many of whom seek a similar type of grooming service to that enjoyed by their fathers. “There is something visceral about the way the old-school feel returns you to your roots and your childhood memories,” says Malcolm.

“Barbering is very generational,” says Ross Klein, a brand officer at gift company Harry & David and a barbershop regular. “It’s rooted in what’s natural and unadorned. If you look at how a town was made up, and what was important culturally, there was always a fresh food market and a barber.”

According to the National Association of Barber Boards of America, the grooming business is in good health. 241,000 barbers were working in 110,000 barbershops in the US last year, the highest number in recent memory.

The resurgence of the barber trend has also proved convenient for businessmen, who have discovered a new networking venue. Klein says: “You’ll find that even though it seems unlikely to be able to conduct business with a straight-edge razor near your throat, it’s something that I think men do that’s different to lunch or having drinks. Between two men it seems to be an accepted social business practice.”

Music industry consultant Mike Lieberman, a former vice president at Sony Records, frequents a barbershop two to three times a week, and finds that not only does a professional shave keep his thick, coarse beard clean for several days, it has also proved an excellent tool for making business contacts. “At the barbershop you make contacts but it’s not forced,” he says. “You guys are sharing something that’s pleasurable.”